Is it fair to praise a criminal who would cover up a murder? Most would say no, but when it comes to Gatsby they completely change their mind. Throughout the novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald allows more and more to be known about Gatsby. At the beginning the reader is shown a mysterious wealthy man that's surrounded by rumors. Then the story progresses and more is revealed about Gatsby, eventually showing his entire character. Gatsby has both his strengths and weaknesses when it comes to character, so it's only natural to look at those to see if he leaves up to the “Great” title. When we first see Gatsby, he is surrounded in mystery. Instead of trying to clear up all the confusion and make things straight, he lets the lies spread. Not only does Gatsby let lies spread, but he spreads some himself. We can see Gatsby dishonesty when Nick asks him about his past. Gatsby says he went to Oxford, but Nick has trouble believing him. “He hurried the phrase “educated at Oxford,” or swallowed it, or choked on it, as though it had bothered him before. And with this doubt, his whole statement fell to pieces, and I wondered if there wasn’t something a little sinister about him, after all,” (Fitzgerald 65). Another time we say Gatsby lie is when he is asked about his wealth. “Yes.” His Besides his charm, there are many reasons people would praise Gatsby. It could be some people admire his love for the girl he will never be with. Others may like his way of cheating the system. They could see his actions and put themselves in Gatsby’s shoes, breaking the rules for the greater good. Gatsby is truly great because he’s what people want to be. A skilled and wealthy person with a pure heart and determination like no other. His mistakes make him human, but his childlike hope makes us forget about them. The world is a harsh place, and to see someone overcome and conquer it for love is something we all can
Gatsby is great because of his ability to dream in a time of deception. He is corrupt but the 1920's were a corrupt time, thus making it justifiable. But this corruptness has nothing to do with his dream; it has to do with the misconceptions of so many others that lived in the period. Gatsby's dream is originally, solely materialistic until he brings Daisy into the dream. Consequently Gatsby would never fully realize his dream, as Daisy is not a material object. Gatsby "had committed himself to the following of a grail," (156, Fitzgerald) a possession. As a result, he and his dream are destined to fail.
As explained in “The Ways We Lie” by Stephanie Ericsson, we lie because it benefits us for personal gain. Everyone lies for different reasons, whether to protect yourself or others. The world of “The Great Gatsby” is driven by lies from people who wish to keep their true selves unknown. No one truly knows the true story behind Gatsby and his wealth.
Based on Fitzgerald’s views, Gatsby does not have a good moral composition, he lied about his past and basically created a false life for Daisy. In chapter 4, he became closer with nick and told him he was, “the son of some wealthy people in the Mid West- all dead now” (69) which is clearly a lie because his father appears at the end of the story. The main reason Gatsby lies about his past is due to shame
One scene that clearly shows the true Gatsby is when he meets Daisy at Nicks house. He is very nervous and wants everything to be perfect for Daisy. To me that shows he is really hung up on what other people think. He wants to impress them the best he can. Obviously Gatsby has little confidence and feels he needs to overwhelm people with appearance opposed to his personality.
The quote that best describes Jay Gatsby is, “He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy” (110). The good qualities of Jay Gatsby are he is a loyal person and he has a good heart. The bad qualities of Gatsby are he is amoral, dishonest, and throws his money away. Fitzgerald developed this character to show how people use their wealth to get love only to discover the love is not real. Additionally, he is developed throughout the novel to be an example of how living extravagantly can be an empty life.
However, he believes that there is a reason behind his dishonesty and that he is not a man of total fraud. Gatsby, indeed, has been dishonest, both with himself and with the rest of the world. He has lied to Nick and the others about where he comes from. His made-up story is that he comes from a wealthy family of deceased people. He says that he is an Oxford-educated man.
Ultimately, Nick is an unreliable narrator who overlooks Gatsby’s lies because of his biased judgment of him. Nick portrays Gatsby as a generous and charismatic figure while in reality, he is a duplicative and obsessed man entangled in illegal business who is determined on an unattainable goal. It is highly ironic that Nick judges others for their lack of morality and honesty; his own character is plagued by lies as he abets Gatsby in many of his schemes.
Gatsby may have not realized he let this lie slide out from under him due to the rush of emotions connected with the reunion of his long lost love. Nevertheless, he did lie to Nick about his past, along with many other people, including Daisy. When he and his love first meet, he lies to her and comes off as a rich, stable man, she would be lucky to fall in love with. This is not the case, however. He is not as innocent as to have just inherited the wealth he gloats.
Throughout the book, Nick strings together pieces of Gatsby’s past. However, his uncertainty grows as Gatsby reveals himself one day while driving to town, “[Gatsby] hurried the phrase ‘educated at Oxford,’ or swallowed it, or choked on it, as though it had bothered him before. And with this doubt, his whole statement fell to pieces, and I wondered if there wasn’t something a little sinister about him, after all” (65). With hesitation in his voice, Gatsby is surely not revealing the truth. The many holes in his storyline can certainly lead one to question the validity of his past.
When you take them together, however, you discover the complicated and unique individual that is Jay Gatsby. One of the traits of Gatsby that makes him truly great is his remarkable capacity for hope. He has faith that what he desires will come to him if he works hard enough. He does not comprehend the cruelty and danger that is the rest of the world. Gatsby, while a man of questionable morals, is as wide-eyed and innocent as a small child in his views of the world.
...lf “one of the most honest people I[he] have[has] ever known”, being honest of course (59). Although this over honesty could make him a bad narrator, he is better than a narrator that lies. Most of the time nick is a reliable narrator who tells the truth, especially when it comes to Gatsby. His thoughts about Gatsby’s character are very just, because he is suspicious about the same things that regular people would be. Also Nick is from a rich family and so he has been around rich people for all of his life. Because of this fact one would think that he is very capable of judging all types of rich people. To be overly honest, as what Nick would say, Gatsby is great and is seen as great in the eyes of Nick, but his suspicions still stand. The reader knows that those suspicions and Nick’s overall ideas are true through the characteristics of Nick and his experiences.
A secret is an actuality that is shielded from others; it is not a truth whose characteristics are openly shared. Subsequently, a secret’s owner will often go to lengths to keep their secrets hidden. In The Great Gatsby, this concept is prevalent in the character Jay Gatsby and the way he conceals his secrets in blankets of lies. One day, Gatsby suddenly invites Nick to lunch, and on the drive there, Gatsby tells Nick about his life, saying “ ‘I am the son of some wealthy people in the Middle West-all dead now. I was brought up in America but educated at Oxford, because all my ancestors have been educated there for many years’ ” (Fitzgerald 65) . In this moment, Gatsby is spinning lies about his past in order to protect his secret that he was brought up penniless, and only recently came into wealth. Gatsby attempts to give Nick the impression that he has always been a wealthy, educated man of status, yet this impression is a smokescreen to hide Gatsby’s secret that he is truly only a farmer’s son. This truth of Gatsby’s origin is constantly being hidden by Gatsby himself, and he goes to great lengths in order to ensure that his secrets don’t become public. He keeps his true origins secret by circulating lies about being “the son of some wealthy people” and being “educated at Oxford” in order to better protect his own interests and not let others know his actual past. Not only does Gatsby lie in order to protect his secrets, but he assures that his lies can’t be traced with the statement that his family is “all dead now”. Though he does eventually reveal his secrets to Nick, at this point, Gatsby lies in order to conceal the truth. In essence, Gatsby’s secrets are just truths and facts that he keeps hidden from other
Starting at a young age Gatsby strives to become someone of wealth and power, leading him to create a façade of success built by lies in order to reach his unrealistic dream. The way Gatsby’s perceives himself is made clear as Nick explains: “The truth was Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God… he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty” (Fitzgerald 98). From the beginning Gatsby puts himself beside God, believing he is capable of achieving the impossible and being what he sees as great. Gatsby blinds himself of reality by idolizing this valueless way of life, ultimately guiding him to a corrupt lifestyle. While driving, Nick observes Gatsby curiously: “He hurried the phrase ‘educated at Oxford,’ or swallowed it, or choked on it, as though it had bothered him before. And with this doubt, his whole statement fell to pieces…” (Fitzgerald 65). To fulfill his aspirations Gatsby desires to be seen an admirable and affluent man in society wh...
F. Scott Fitzgerald was very clever in choosing the word "great" in describing such a complex character as Jay Gatsby. It is clear that this word is being used facetiously as Fitzgerald continuously reveals more and more weakness within Gatsby. At first glance, Gatsby is portrayed as glamorous and magnificent. The reader himself learns to appreciate this man who is the classic example of an American hero- someone who has worked his way up the social and economic ladder. He is a man who has completely invented his own, new, inflated image. Throughout the novel, this glorified facade is slowly peeled away. Gatsby eventually gets killed in pursuit of romance with the beautiful, superficial socialite, Daisy Buchanan. Havi...
"The Great Gatsby" is a book full of passion. There is Gatsby 's passionate love for Daisy. There is Tom 's passion for money. When reading this book I realized that these people broke the American dream in their time. They couldn 't be happy when all they did was chase money. The Great Gatsby was full of themes, motif 's, and symbolism and the way that fitzgerald used his characters to get his point across of what it was like back them was marvelous. Gatsby just wanted the love of his life back, so he did everything he could so that he could support her. I think that out of every single character, Gatsby 's choices were the most pure. The only reason he wanted all of the money that he got was because he wanted to make the woman he loved happy,